Ore-concentrator



(No Mdem P. B. MORSE.

ORB GGNCENTRATOR.

No. 449,292. Patented Mar. 31, 1891.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

FRANK E. MORSE, OE MURPHYs, CALIFORNIA.

'ORE-CONCIENTRATOR.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters ]Eatent ]'.\To. 449,292, dated March 31, 1891..

Application filed August '7, 1886. Serial No. 210,365. (No model.)

Murphys, Calaveras county, State of California, have invented an Improvement in Ore- Concentrators; and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention relates to that class of oreconcentrators in which an endless' traveling belt is employed, and to which apositive shaking motion is imparted; and my invention consists in an ore-concentrator of this class the endless belt of which is formed or provided with a corrugated surface7 as I shall fully eX- plain.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a perspective view of the ore-concentrator. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of a part of the corrugated belt.

My invention is applicable to any of the endless-belt ore-concentrators in which a positive shaking motion is imparted to the belt. These machines differ from one another in details of construction relating to the framework and the mechanism for impart-ing to the belt the several motions; but they all resemble one another in the employment of a common feature-namely, the endless traveling belt to which a positive shake or oscillatory motion is imparted.

In the original concentrators or Vanning machines the belt was made of canvas or other fabric of similar character. Later the rubber belt was manufactured and found to be best adapted for that purpose. These belts have generally been made with a smooth surface, their sides being provided with guard-flanges for the pulp. They are set at a slight inclination and have imparted to them what is known as an uphill travel, at the same time receiving a supplementary motion, which is known as a shake, this latter being either sidewise, endwise, a rotary movement, or an eccentric movement resulting from the combination of simple movements.

In the accompanying drawings I have shown a well-known machine of ythis class, to which my improvements have been applied and which will require no further description than to say that the endless belt is supported at an inclination upon a swinging frame B and has a shake or oscillating movement imparted to it by means of revolving cranks and connect ing-rods, which gently agitato it in practically a horizontal direction without substantially varying the plane of the working-surface of the belt. One of these cranks is shown at l) andthe connecting-rod at the last being connected pivotally with the roller-frame that carries the belt, and the said belt having an uphill travel and passing down underneath the roller-frame through a washing-tank, whereby the sulphurets which cling to its surface are deposited, the ore being fed on the surface of the belt from the Ore-feeder C, together with a stream of water from the water-feeder D, in the usual manner.

The general operation is that the stream of water flowing down the inclined belt carries the lighter or waste particles of thepulp with it to the lower end, while the heavier particles or sulphurets cling to the surface of the belt and proceed upwardly with its travel againstthe How Of water, and passing around the upper end they are deposited in the tank below. This is the operation of all machines of this character. Now, instead of using the ordinary belt with its flat or smooth surface, I combine with the other members of the machine an endless belt A, which is made with a transversely-corrugated surface and preferably provided at thersides with the guardanges da', and as rubber belts are found to be the most practicable in these machines I prefer that my corrugated belt A shall be a rubber belt also, in which case it will be originally molded or otherwise Aformed with its corrugated surface, the corrugations being thus integral with the body of the belt. These corrugations should preferably have the shape shown in Fig. 2 and be close together, say about eight to the inch, leaving no space between, as with ril-iles, and of a depth somewhat larger than the size of the crushed particles of ore. They may be made in any direction, crosswise or transversely of the surface of the belt, depending somewhat upon the character of the machine in which it is employed-that is to say, whether it has one variety of shake or another-though for all practical purposes and to adapt the said belt to the use of the most improved concentra- -tors now on the market, the corrugations of the surface of the belt should be made di- IOO rectly transverse, as I have shown in the drawings.

The general advantage of the shaking belt having a corrugated surface vis that the capacity of the machine is greatly increased. The sulphurets are caught in the depressions of the surface with more certainty, and are carried with the belt upward against the downflowing stream of Water and the layer of waste material with less danger of being dislodged and carried off than if they were upon a plane surface. The machine is also adapted for a much heavier load and can handle it effectively and rapidly. The smooth surfacebelts can receive but a small load, owing to the danger of wasting the sulphurets and of so packing the pulp as to prevent the proper concentration; but with my improvement the load may be increased and worked much more rapidly. The sulphnrets saved, also, are cleaner than those from the ordinary machine and there is less loss of tailings. The mercury and amalgam which escape from the plates (over which the pulp is passed before it is fed to the concentrator) are all saved by my improved machine.

The positive shaking motion above described by me is a shaking or oscillating movement Without jar, such as is produced by the cranks above described, as distinguished from a jarring movement such as would be produced by means of hammers acting in an upward direction on the under side of the belt, or of bumpers for the frame to strike against percussively.

I claim as my inventionl. An endless rubber ore-concentrator belt containing a series of surface corrugations integral with the belt, constructed transversely of the belt and contiguous to each other, substantially as described.

2. In an ore-concentrator machine having mechanisms, substantially as described, adapted, respectively, to support, drive, and oscillate horizontally an inclined endless traveling belt, the combination, with said mechanisms, of a belt constructed with a series of surface corrugations extending transversely of the belt and contiguous to one another, substantially as described.

In wit-ness whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

FRANK B. MORSE.

Witnesses:

R. SENTER, JOHN MCQUIG. 

